I’m tired of the juggling

When are you moving to Nebraska? I've been asked that question a lot lately. The answer became obvious the first weekend of February, when Scott came home after his first two days of work in Lincoln. Emily had missed him terribly more than I had expected.

Driving to work the next Monday morning stressing out about who I could find to babysit Emily during the city council meeting that night I realized I shouldn't have stayed this long. My furniture and belongings except a couple of air mattresses, the microwave and a small TV leave this weekend. Emily and I will move the first weekend of March.

Scott, in the meantime, is living with his parents. The closest thing we have to a house of our own is a storage unit.

He has been driving by houses with the qualities we are looking for lots of room, a large yard for the dogs, a good neighborhood and, hopefully, two bathrooms.

I'm confident that we won't have to set up house in our storage unit, but my paychecks need to come from a Nebraska job before any bank will grant us a home loan.

So where am I going to work when I make it to Lincoln? Not at a newspaper, as most people expect. I need to take a break from this profession, at least until Emily is older. As a police officer, Scott works odd hours. As a journalist, so do I. That's not a good combination, because we don't have daycare available 24 hours a day. I'm tired of the juggling act.

I want an 8 to 5 job with weekends off. There are journalism jobs out there like that, but not at a newspaper. I hope to find one of those. However, I don't care if I end up answering phones, sending faxes and making coffee because the benefits can't be beat.

**

I told Knute Pittenger and fellow Knights of Columbus volunteers I would mention what a fine job they did at the Jody Guy benefit last Saturday night. I'm not sure if you can consider that second bowl of chili a bribe or not, but they sure deserve the attention. They cooked for and served a lot of people. In fact, everyone involved in the benefit should be recognized. Silent auction and raffle items filled the multi-purpose room at Baldwin Elementary School. And based on the overflowing donation jar and the amount of bidding going on, the benefit was surely a success.

I let men cook for me last Friday night, too. The men of the Ives Chapel United Methodist Church did the cooking at the church's annual Groundhog Day pancake supper. I ordered four pancakes for Emily and I, until I saw how big the pancakes were and changed the order to two. The food was good, and we didn't go away hungry.